Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kirk Lowery <klowery AT whi.wts.edu>]

Dave Washburn wrote:

> I'd like to know how to type Hebrew Unicode in Linux, specifically
> Fedora Core 3.........

You might google for X11 keyboard maps for Unicode Hebrew. I've never
heard of any. xmodmap and loadkeys are just two of the keyboard
utilities that help you create a new keyboard mapping. KDE has a
keyboard map changer that works in the taskbar just like Windows does.

I'd recommend you take a look at SBLHebrew's keyboard mapping and
reproduce that.

Some informative URLs on the subject of creating Unicode keyboard maps:

Linux keyboard howto:

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO.html

Linux Unicode howto:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Unicode-HOWTO.html

BTW, since we on the subject: I've just replaced my aging laptop with an
Apple PowerBook. For Unicode Hebrew I can report that MacWord and
NeoOfficeJ are horrible. *But* I stress tested TextEditor (that comes
with the Mac) and it handles nikud and te`amim very nicely. Problem is
that TextEditor is not a full-featured word processor. Mellel has been
mentioned on this list and I checked it out. It's a very nice word
processor with all the usual bells and whistles AND it displays
cantillated Hebrew just fine, including those most difficult chapters:
Ex 20 and Dt 5 with all the double accents, etc. There may be others
equally good out there, but it's good to know that every major platform
is converging to good Unicode Hebrew support. Another couple of years
and it should all be seamless...

Blessings,

Kirk
B-Hebrew co-chair
-- 
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
Director, Westminster Hebrew Institute
Adjunct Professor of Old Testament
Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
--
"Good boy, Dex!"
  -- Joseph "Sky Captain" Sullivan